Clips can be captured in the moment, then submitted later.
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Xbox is adding reactive voice chat moderation. Rolling out today to Xbox Insiders, the new reporting feature will allow players to capture and submit 60-second audio clips of inappropriate voice chat messages, which will then be reviewed by the Xbox safety team.
In an interview with The Verge, Xbox GM of Trust and Safety Kim Kunes said that voice chat moderation represented the next step in Xbox’s holistic approach to ensuring player safety.
“If a player experiences something in our community that they don’t like and they want to report that to us, they have a variety of different options for doing that,” Kunes said. “We do moderation proactively on text, on images, and videos, and launching reactive voice moderation is about that audio portion of it.”
This new feature was designed to be as minimally invasive as possible so players can capture and report offending clips without disrupting gameplay. If you hear something and want to report it, you can capture it in the moment, then submit your report later.
Kunes was explicit in that Xbox is not actively listening to nor storing player voice chats.
“Recording is strictly done through the reporting functionality, and it’s only available for moderation purposes,” she said. “So it’s not something that the player can save or share separately from that reporting mechanism to us.”
Clips captured for moderation are also deleted 24 hours after capture. Kunes said Xbox will remind you to submit your report before the deletion. Xbox is also expanding its notification system to inform players on what action Xbox took and why.
Kunes said that reported clips will be reviewed by human moderations, not an algorithm, and that context will be important to how Xbox will make moderation decisions. Players will have the ability to submit additional text with their report to provide context, and after moderation decisions are made, affected players will have the ability to submit an appeal.
“We recognize that things evolve over time, and we need to continue to shift our approach and our processes to ensure that there is a fair review and appeals process,” Kunes said.
Currently, the program will only be available to Xbox Insiders in English-language markets — US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
“We want to get some more feedback from our insider group,” Kunes said. “And then once we have that data, we will finalize our plan for a wider rollout over the coming months.”
Reactive voice chat monitoring is one of the newer ways publishers and game companies are combating harassment. Games like Overwatch 2 and Valorant have implemented voice chat moderation programs, and back in 2020, Sony announced that it was rolling out a similar feature.
For Xbox, reactive voice chat is a feature that’s been long desired. “What we want to do is to continue to advance our ability to provide for what our players are asking for,” Kunes said. “We want to continue to assure [players] that Xbox and our community is a welcoming and safe place for everyone.”
